Championing LGBTQI+ Mental Health

What is Rainbow Mind?

Rainbow Mind is a new service aiming to tackle mental health issues for individuals within the LGBTQI+ community. Rainbow Mind is a collaborative project between Mind in the City, Hackney and Waltham Forest (Mind CHWF) and Mind in Salford, so will take place across London and Greater Manchester. For specific information on each location, please follow above links.

Rainbow Mind is mainly led, staffed and directed by LGBTQI+ people. Our Steering Group is also made up of key members of the LGBTQI+ communities who set the strategic direction for the project.

We have chosen to focus on LGBTQI+ mental health needs, as existing evidence suggests that health outcomes are generally worse within this community than the rest of the population, and people who identify as LGBTQI+ in the UK report a lower quality of life than the general population as a result.

As part of the project, we are conducting a randomised controlled trial (RCT) on a newly developed training that has been put together by our experienced practitioners, called Radical Self-Care (RadSec). The training teaches self-care and mindfulness skills to deal with some of the unique mental health needs and experiences of LGBTQI+ individuals.